– Rinzin Phunjok Lama
Climate change is the greatest environmental problem facing the world today. Human-driven climate change alters the composition of the global atmosphere, bringing temperature rises and extreme weather patterns. Although Nepal is only responsible for about 0.025% of the annual greenhouse gas emissions that cause climate change, as a Himalayan country we are highly vulnerable to its impacts, and our mountain communities are likely to experience extreme effects.
As part of my studies, I aimed to find out how much women of the Nyinba valley in the east of Simikot, Humla knew and understood about climate change. ‘Nyinba’ literally means ‘Sunny’ valley, and encompasses the four villages of Bargaun, Burunse, Nimatang and Torpa. The villages are located at altitudes of between 2850 to 3300 meters in the valley carved by the Humla Karnali and Dozam Khola rivers. The area relies on a diversified economy of agriculture, trade and animal husbandry. The major agricultural crops are buckwheat, wheat and potatoes and locals rear animals including cows, donkeys, mules, and horses.Agriculture in the Nyinba valley is rain fed. There is sharp fall in agricultural production, sufficient only for few months, due to changed monsoon pattern and drought. According toRegmi and Paudyal (2009), over the past three years, the delay in monsoon season experienced in Nepal has changed the cropping pattern and crop maturity period.
I held informal discussions, interviews and filled out semi-structured questionnaires with a sample of 20 educated Nyinba women who were working in a variety of sectors. Studies have suggested that including women in any climate change strategies is crucial, and this begins with increasing their understanding of the risks involved.
I found that 80% of the respondents were familiar with the idea of climate change. 95% believed that the temperature had risen in the last decade; of these 95% also believed that this rise in temperature was due to climate change.90% reported observinga change in climatic condition such as rainfall, snowfall, drought, snow melt etc. 80% had experienced the fall in agricultural production due to drought, pest and diseases while 20% experienced the fall in production due to insufficient manure or heavy rain. 95% of the respondents also reported having seen a shift in planting of crops (apples, wheat, rice, chilies, eggplant etc) to higher altitude. Respondents also believed that production of high value herbs, another source of income, has decreased. This resulted in accelerated seasonal migration of youths in recent years.
However, changing climate patterns are not necessarily always seen as negative. Production of crops like finger millet, chilies, tomatoes, onions etc. are now possibledue to the warmer climatein Nyinba Valley. For instance, Khinjor Lama said that over the last two years people have been cultivating rice in lower farmland of Bargaun, on land was previously only suitable for buckwheat and millet. In Nimatang, the highest of the Nyinba villages, respondents said that in the last 5-10 years the production of wheat and apples has become much more favorable than in the past, which may be due to an increase in temperature.
From Burunse, Tsering Pundor Lama, shared snow fall is much less in recent years and melts quickly with an increased frequency of erratic rainfall. Ms. Lama assumed temperature rise as a cause for the faster melting of the snow and glacier melt. This observation can be linked to countless studies and climate change models positing that increases in temperature and erratic rainfall directly affect the agriculture and food supply through effects on crops.
Overall, I found that the majority of the respondents have experienced climate change and its effect and are also practicing adaptation measures based on their own capacities and values. Changes in crop cycles, rainfall and snow melt, planting elevation and demographic change due to migration in times of poor crop production are all likely to continue to affect the people of the Nyinba Valley and other mountain communities. It is important that we continue to discuss climate change, conduct systematic biophysical and social research to get good baseline data for these areas, and make efforts to mitigate the effects in these communities.
(The author is an Associate Member of Mountain Spirit. He is recently selected for the Earth Corps Volunteer Program 2014 and he will be attending the six-month environmental training program from June to December 2014 in Seattle, USA.)
This article was published in Mountain Trail_issue 5_ April 2014, a quarterly e-newsletter of Mountain Spirit. To read the e-newsletter, please click Mountan Trail.
